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AbstractThe objective of this paper is to analyse and compare the design and governance of the contemporary childcare policy in the Czech Republic and Norway in relation to the situation of households with dependent children under school age. Following this, we review certain provisions of the childcare policies of the two countries, whose systems possessed certain similarities at the beginning of the 1990s, although they represent distinct types of welfare state. Our analysis reveals that the chief differences in childcare policy have persisted and adapted to the key features of the welfare regimes. The two countries' central childcare policy values contrast with each other (equity and free choice in Norway vs. re-familisation and strong 'family dependency' among individuals in the Czech Republic) and exhibit differences in the structure and extent of policy measures, as well. Policies in both are less sensitive to the needs of children with specific needs (such as migrants in Norway or Roma children in the Czech Republic).

This article puts forward the concept of street-level bureaucrats and their role in public policy in its full complexity. In the first two parts the authors define street-level bureaucrats and the roots of the basic ideologies that determine their behaviour (principles of bureaucracy, professionalism, bureau-professionalism and managerialism). They draw on previous analytical
studies they conducted on this theme and present the latest empirical findings on the behavior of street-level bureaucrats who work with unemployed people. In this way they try to demonstrate the importance of principles of bureaucracy, professionalism, and bureau-professionalism in contemporary public policy.

This paper evaluates the active labour market policy instrument called 'chosen training' (in Czech zvolené rekvalifikace), introduced to the Czech labour market policy in 2012. This new instrument allows the registered unemployed much more freedom to choose their supposed future career path by selecting the preferred profession for training and preferred training provider than traditional standard training programs. The added value of this paper is in the intentional linking of the provision of new measures with the assessment of impacts. The methodology of this text is based on quantitative program assessment. We used PES administrative data OK Práce for programmes implemented in 2016 and tracked the outcomes for 2016-2020. We compare a new instrument with more traditional training programs that continue to be provided alongside the new tool. We concluded that chosen training provided better results than standard training, and we addressed some of the reasons behind the perceived difference. Key words: training, active labour market policy, evaluation, targeting

PurposeThe paper deals with the question to what extent implementation conditions influence the profile of activation policies in the Czech Republic. In this way, it helps to clarify more general questions: how are broader objectives of these policies specified at the bottom level of implementation and why activation policies differ among countries, although guided by similar general objectives and principles.Design/methodology/approachThe findings are based on implementation case studies carried out at several local labour offices during the pilot stage and later during the routine stage of implementation of Individual Action Plans (IAPs).FindingsThe paper shows that in the pilot stage of IAPs, the employability approach of enforced activation originated from the top‐down and was adopted at the local level; however, in a fragmented way due to unfavourable implementation conditions (above all poor staffing and a lack of activation programmes). It follows from these very conditions that, in the routine stage, the programme has been dying away, despite being supported by legislation and programme documents. On the other hand, processes of institutional learning have been initiated owing to IAPs and, with the availability of new policy opportunities at the local level (brought about with projects funded from the ESF), policy coalitions and activation policies emerge from the bottom‐up, giving rise to another model: capability approach of inclusion through participation.Practical implicationsThe findings are signalling to policy makers the necessity to control the implementation conditions at the national, as well as local level and to take the bottom‐up processes of policy re‐formulation into consideration.Originality/valueThe analysis of the contradictions between the levels of policy‐making and of the volatility of implemented policies emerging from specific implementation conditions represents the original contribution of the study.